Send To

So, what exactly is the Send To option for? Does it even have a purpose? Well, if you’ve ever wondered what the answer to that question is, then come along with me. I’ll explain everything!

One of the most powerful tools in the Windows operating systems is the right mouse button. That one little button opens up so many new options and it makes so many things so much easier. I find myself using this right mouse button almost more often than the left one. Now, a particularly useful, but not very commonly used right click option is Send To.

Where to Find Send To

To find out what you can do with the Send To feature, let’s create a test file to play around with. Go to Start, Run, type in Notepad and click OK. Notepad will then open on your screen. Next, just type something. For example, “This is a test file.” (Or, if you feel creative and daring, type something else!) When you’re done, click File, Save As and save this file as “test.txt” on your C: drive in the root directory.

Now, open Windows Explorer (right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and choose Explore). Once that’s open, click your C: drive on the left to see its contents on the right. You should see your file called “test.txt” listed. Right click on the test file to get the right click menu and choose the Send To option. You’ll see a submenu pop up. At the very least, you should have four options listed here that Windows installs as the default options. You may have more on your computer, but for the default’s sake, they are:

Like I said before, you might see some more, but we’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s see how the default options work.

How They Work

3½ Floppy (A:)

Selecting this option will automatically copy the file that you right clicked to your floppy drive of A:. Of course, you should insert a floppy with sufficient disk space first. Send To can’t insert it for you. It’s good, but not that good!

Desktop (create shortcut)

Selecting this option will create a shortcut to this file on your desktop. This makes it a lot easier to access this file in the future by simply double clicking the shortcut, instead of having to dig for the file on your hard drive first.

Mail Recipient

Selecting this option will open up Outlook Express, pull up a new e-mail message window and automatically attach a copy of the selected file to the e-mail. All you do is enter the recipient’s e-mail address and some text and you’re ready to send the file on its way.

My Documents

Selecting this option will automatically copy the selected file to your My Documents folder. This is a great way to save some steps and make it easier to perform those tasks.

So, I’m sure you’re probably beginning to see how handy this feature can be. Of course, the question that still pops up though is “How do I customize this Send To menu to make it work better for me”? Well, I’m willing to guess that you’d be surprised as to how easy it is and maybe we’ll cover that in the near future! Until then, experiment with the Send To option and see how it can make your computer life so much better. Enjoy!